The story appears on

Page A4

April 27, 2016

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » Metro » Society

Residents say traffic crackdown is working

ZHANG Yang, who often drives to work, has been commuting by bus for a week.

“There is more congestion on the road, but since much fewer drivers illegally use the bus-only lanes now, public transportation has become a better option for me,” he told Shanghai Daily.

One month into the largest campaign against bad road behavior ever undertaken in the city, Zhang is one of many residents who feel that people are now more inclined to obey traffic rules.

His view was shared by Zhou Xiang’an, a police officer in Hongkou District. Zhou has only taken three days off in the past month due to his participation in the citywide crackdown, but he said his hard work has paid off. “Cars form longer queues, but they don’t cut in front of others as often as before and fewer illegally use the non-vehicle lanes,” he told Shanghai Daily.

Pedestrians and bike riders are more respectful to the police now, said Zhou.

“They’re more likely to stop before a red light, for example, so it seems that their ‘herd instinct’ has gradually given way to an awareness of the rules,” he said. “More police officers on the road and the punishments they face might be a deterrence factor.”

City police officers have been reinforced by their colleagues from other departments in the recent crackdown.

However, some residents told Shanghai Daily that they think the effort does not go far enough. “There are simply too many offenses all around, and I feel that some policemen on the road are not very competent in enforcing traffic laws,” said Zheng Chunbin, a motorist.

Zheng said he was stopped recently by a police officer while legally riding his motorcycle in a motor lane and was told that he should have used the bike lane.

Some suggested that to address traffic congestion, a crackdown is not enough.

“Congestion is sometimes more the consequence of bad traffic planning, so it will take more than a crackdown to address the problem,” said Jenny Zhang.

Meanwhile, the number of road accidents in the city has dropped dramatically this month, coinciding with police issuing twice as many tickets as they did over the same period last year.

Pudong Police yesterday told Shanghai Daily that the number of road accidents recorded in the area this month so far is 30 percent down from the same period last year.

“Usually the number rises year on year because the number of cars on the road increases all the time, so the drop means that the crackdown is working,” said Tang Junwei from Pudong Police.

Shanghai Police said in a statement on Monday that over 1.43 million traffic offenses were dealt with in the past month, a 117 percent rise from last year.

The number of common offenses police have dealt with in the campaign has reached 1.23 million, a 137 percent rise, according to police.




 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend